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Barry Avrich arrived in Los Angeles this week, lodging at his favorite Sunset Marquis in West Hollywood, to wrap up interviews in one of the hotel’s villas. The interviews now number 70 for his controversial documentary, Unauthorized, The Harvey Weinstein Project, that he’s been filming during the past months. He awaits word from a final interviewee, a globetrotting presence, who’s expressed interest in appearing.

Filmmaker Barry presides over Endeavour Marketing in Toronto, and his 2005 documentary, The Last Mogul, about Lew Wasserman, the titanic head of MCA, which owned Universal, received hosannas from the critics. Meeting with Barry on his first night in town, we dined on owner-chef Edoardo Baldi’s fine Italian cuisine at e. baldi, and dining nearby were Leo DiCaprio, Quincy Jones, Brian Grazer, Naomi Campbell and her Russian moneybags boyfriend who paid the tab.

Harvey Weinstein is the larger-than-life founder with his brother Bob of Miramax Films. They were born in Flushing, NY, where mother Miriam fueled her sons’ desire to succeed, says Barry, “helping with homework, etc. Father Max Weinstein was a diamond cutter. On weekends when Harvey’s classmates were busy romping, he hounded the movie theaters … today he’d win, hands down, in any movie trivia game.” While attending the University of Buffalo, Harvey became a concert promoter (Stephen Stills), developing his now-infamous hype expertise.

After Harvey and Bob sold Miramax to Disney, since Disney planned returning to making family films, they founded The Weinstein Co. In time, they offered to buy back Miramax, but lost to Ron Tutor’s Colony Capital only a week ago, the price being $660 million. Their Miramax library has over 700 films, and coupled with the Weinstein Co.’s additions, that’s more than 1,000 valuable titles. They include Oscar winners and nominations for Best Film and for casts and screenwriters. Chicago, Inglourious Bastards, The Queen, Shakespeare in Love, The Piano, The English Patient, Sling Blade, the James Ivory-Ismail Merchant oeuvre, The Cider House Rules, and others. Card-game that filmmaking is, Miramax and the Weinstein brothers also have had their fair share of flops such as The Aviator, Nine, Cold Mountain, The Golden Bull, Factory Girl, Spitfire Grill, etc.

“Unauthorized is not a hatchet job,” insists Barry Avrich. He promises a balanced overview of a controversial, love-or-hate-him producer, whose editing savvy is acknowledged by interviewees who’ve worked with him. Common knowledge is that Harvey knows no bounds when it comes to controlling what he wants. Yes, he’s tempestuous. But doesn’t this go with mogul territory? Meryl Poster, who became Miramax’s president of production, claims she sent Harvey to Anger Management classes.

Approaching Barry time and again to stop production on the $1 million-plus project, Harvey warned he would curtail access to his colleagues. But Barry’s determination would not be deterred.

“Hollywood runs on fear,” Barry says. “Fear of going on the record. When we were interviewing for the Lew Wasserman documentary, friends and foes were frightened of being interviewed about a man who was dead. Why would Gwyneth Patrow, who Harvey campaigned into a Best Actress Oscar from Shakespeare in Love, be fearful (or advised by publicists) about appearing in the documentary? Wouldn’t she only say good things about Harvey? What did she fear? Gwyneth stole the award from Cate Blanchett, favored to win for her performance in Shekhar Kapour’s Elizabeth – the consensus being that Cate was robbed by Harvey’s Oscar marketing “smarts.” When we mentioned this to Cate during The Aviator premiere, she laughed, “My mother agrees.”

For that matter, adds Barry, why wouldn’t Matt Damon or Ben Affleck willingly appear in the Weinstein documentary, since Harvey and his marketing minions promoted an Oscar for their Good Will Hunting screenplay. “Matt or Ben would say nice things. You approach them, and out of fear, publicists throw roadblocks up.

“You die of encouragement in Hollywood. Take a meeting, there’s universal excitement about what you propose, and never hear from the parties involved.”

Barry acknowledges that he began reading Variety at age eight, and made his first film at 15. He’s produced a film on the Rolling Stones with promoter Michael Cohl, and the documentary, Guilty Pleasure, about author/Vanity Fair columnist Dominick (Nick) Dunne. New York Times reporter David Carr quipped that Nick owned a black belt in name-dropping. Barry’s written three books about marketing, including Selling the Sizzle and its sequel. Says he doesn’t need much sleep – four hours will do.

David Carr’s among Barry’s 70 perceptive interviewees in Unauthorized, as is The New Yorker’s Ken Auletta, who spent days observing Harvey in the editing room. Invited to appear in the documentary, we affirmed with other guests that the Weinsteins unquestionably have a third act coming. Powerful figures they are, who are passionate about films.

Peter Fonda is narrating Unauthorized, and included in Barry’s 70 are Chris McGurk, Phoenix Pictures Mike Medavoy, author Peter Biskind, Variety’s Peter Bart and Tim Gray, author John Irving, Mark Gill, Meryl Poster, who became president of Miramax after beginning as an office assistant, Eamonn Bowles, George Hickenlooper, John Ptak, Larry Meistrich, others.

Considering the blockbuster mentality of audiences today, Barry asked interviewees if there’s a future for the independent films that Harvey and Bob have championed, and the answer was a resounding yes.

Barry returns to Canada where the annual Toronto International Film Festival (Sept. 9-19) has been enhanced in past years with his marketing skills. He’s producing, with designer Danny Greenglass, the Best Buddies dinner honoring Peter Fonda at the Four Seasons Hotel benefiting the Special Olympics on Sept. 12. Ann-Margret, Shirley MacLaine, Lauren Bacall, Bob Evans, Lou Gossett, Burt Reynolds are among Barry’s previous honorees, with these evenings raising more than $15 million.

Harvey enjoys friendships in high places, notably President Barack Obama. He and his infanticipating wife Georgina Chapman, a stunner, attended Vogue editor Anna Wintour’s Democratic fundraiser dinner in her town house in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village. (Georgina is the designing talent behind Marchesa, which celebrities often wear on the Red Carpet – her multimillionaire father oversees an organic coffee company.) Each of the 50 guests shelled out $30,400 for the evening, raising $1.5 million, with an exclusive photo layout appearing in Vogue. Joining Harvey and Georgina were hotelier Andre Balazs (Chateau Marmont, Standard and Mercer Hotels), designers Calvin Klein, Vera Wang, Donna Karan, Tory Burch, Diane von Furstenberg. WWD reports that due to the tight security, Anna Wintour’s mate, Shelby Bryan, was frisked in his own residence, along with everyone else.

Unauthorized will be released in the spring of next year.

When Nikki Finke blogged that Lynne Segall is coming aboard on August 9 to the new position of Vice President/Publisher for Mail.com Media Corporation, the parent of Nikki’s Deadline Hollywood, the Internet exploded with the news, and Lynne was flooded with congratulatory e-mails from studio heads, etc. MMC’s entertainment portfolio, besides Nikki’s must-read Deadline.com, includes HollywoodLife.com, Movieline.com, and award events. Jay Penske, 30, is the handsome owner of MMC Entertainment – he’s photographed for the Best Dressed List in the Sept. issue of Vanity Fair.

Lynne’s career is extraordinary. She’s brought huge revenues to the Los Angeles Times and at The Hollywood Reporter, where we were colleagues for 20 years. In our entertainment industry firmament, Lynne, indisputably, is a star.